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Typical DI diesel engines operate with fuel injection taking place within a range of about 30 crank angle degrees before top dead center, at the end of the compression stroke. When injection takes place far earlier, at the beginning of the compression stroke, another form of combustion occurs, which we termed PREmixed lean Diesel Combustion, or PREDIC. With PREDIC operation, self-ignition occurs near top dead center and NOx emissions are drastically lower. When ignition occurs, the fuel-air mixture is thought to be nearly homogeneous, with only slight heterogeneity. Appropriate fuel spray formation is very important for successful PREDIC operation. Using a single-zone NOx formation model, calculations showed that the mean excess air ratio in the PREDIC combustion zone was 1.87, which resulted in very low (20 ppm) NOx emissions. Conventional combustion at the same conditions resulted in a mean combustion zone excess air ratio of 0.88.

Two dimensional flame temperature distributions in D.I. diesel engine with high pressure fuel injection were measured by the image analysis of high speed photographs based on two color method. Effects of injection pressure and nozzle hole diameter on flame temperature distribution were examined. The flame temperature in the case of high pressure injection is higher than that in low injection pressure. The higher flame temperature in high pressure injection results from the rapid compression of burned gases. The KL value which is an index of soot density in the combustion chamber decreases as injection pressure increases. The higher oxidation rate of soot at the later period of combustion may contribute to a soot reduction in the case of high pressure injection.

For the purpose of developing direct injection heavy-duty methanol engines which surpass diesel engines in purformace, this paper first clarifies the methanol concentration around the spark plug for achieving a high ignition stability by sampling the gas near the spark plug using a sampling valve. The combustion process of methanol is then observed by the method of high-speed Schlieren photography to clarify the mode of methanol combustion. A new methanol DISC combustion system having a protrusion in the combustion chamber is devised based on such results. This study clarifies that the methanol concentration at the point of ignition for high ignition stability is in the range of 6 to 22 vol%. The methanol mixture burns by flame propagation so far as the compression ratio is on the order of 16.5.

Thermal efficiency of carbureted and injection engine was compared through thermodynamic cycle simulation. When the compression ratio is the same, the combined control carbureted engine in which the A/F ratio control method is used in the high load range and the throttling method is used in the low load range shows the highest thermal efficiency followed by the injection engine and the throttling carbureted engine. The thermal efficiency of the injection engine is lower than that of combined control carbureted engine because the temperature of gases in cylinder does not rise much due to stratified charge combustion. When the compression ratio of these engines is optimized, the thermal efficiency is the highest for the injection engine followed by the combined control carbureted engine. The thermal efficiency of the combined control carbureted engine is lower than that of the injection engine at high and low loads, but they are in the same level at intermediate loads.